Author Jack Heath is launching a new party game for storytellers

Canberra author Jack Heath first published a book at the age of 17, and since then he’s been churning out high-octane spy thriller and sci-fi books for kids and, most recently, a brilliantly bloody book for adults featuring a detective addicted to eating human flesh.

But the author of over 20 books has had another project in the works: a tabletop card game for storytellers and creative-types.

The game is called Lights, Camera, Pitch! and to play, each participant pretends to be a film producer pitching their latest project to the ‘studio’, another player who decides whether to 'greenlight' the proposed film.

The pitch, however, must be based on the cards the player has drawn, which provide the sets, titles and actors for the pitcher's would-be movie.

‘It's guaranteed to get you and your friends laughing, as you desperately try to convince the studio that Detective Rampage, set on a submarine and starring Oprah Winfrey, would be a good movie,’ Heath writes on the Kickstarter page for the game.

The author’s fundraising goal of $1600, which would allow 30 copies of the game to be created, has already been well surpassed. At the time of writing, the project has 81 backers, who collectively have donated almost $4500.

If the fundraiser hits $5000, the size of the deck will be increased, and if it gets to $7500, Heath plans to hire an artist to ‘make the deck and box looks fancy’.

The concept for the game was initially conceived as an educational resource Heath used while running creative writing workshops.

Now it looks as if there are plenty of people who, perhaps bored of Monopoly and sick of Scrabble, are hungering for a new party game that flexes their creative muscles.